When to look
Mars and Jupiter rise around 11 p.m. and stay up for the rest of the night, but Venus rises only about three hours before the Sun, and Mercury less than two. So the time to see all four together is the last hour before sunrise, while the sky is still dark enough for Mercury: from mid-northern latitudes, roughly an hour to half an hour before the Sun comes up. Mercury and Venus are then low in the south-east, Mars and Jupiter high in the south; from the southern hemisphere Mars and Jupiter are in the north-east.
| City | All four before dawn | Best morning | Mars and Jupiter, 16 Nov |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 11 Nov – 4 Dec | 21 Nov, 06:50 | 06:15, 52° up in the south |
| Vilnius | 11 Nov – 3 Dec | 19 Nov, 07:15 | 06:35, 49° up in the south |
| Madrid | 10 Nov – 7 Dec | 19 Nov, 07:35 | 07:25, 63° up in the south |
| New York | 10 Nov – 7 Dec | 21 Nov, 06:20 | 06:05, 63° up in the south |
| Los Angeles | 10 Nov – 8 Dec | 22 Nov, 06:05 | 05:55, 69° up in the south |
| Cairo | 10 Nov – 9 Dec | 22 Nov, 06:00 | 05:55, 73° up in the south |
| Delhi | 11 Nov – 10 Dec | 19 Nov, 06:20 | 06:15, 74° up in the south |
| Tokyo | 11 Nov – 9 Dec | 21 Nov, 05:55 | 05:45, 68° up in the south |
| Sydney | Mercury stays too low | — | 05:15, 34° up in the north-east |
| Cape Town | Mercury stays too low | — | 05:05, 34° up in the north-east |
“All four” counts the mornings when, with the Sun at least 6° below the horizon, each of the four is at least 5° up. Best morning: when the lowest of them, Mercury, is highest. Local times, rounded to 5 minutes.
From the southern hemisphere Mercury never gets more than about 4° up before the sky brightens, so in Sydney or Cape Town the show is Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
Mars meets Jupiter on 16 November
Seen from the centre of the Earth, Mars passes 1.2° north of Jupiter at 02:03 UTC on 16 November — a little more than the width of two full Moons. Both are in Leo, 4° to 5° from its brightest star, Regulus. Jupiter, at magnitude −2.1, is by far the brighter; Mars, at +0.7, is the orange point beside it. The gap stays under 1.5° from 14 to 18 November, so one cloudy morning is no great loss.
Binoculars show the two in one field, with Jupiter's four large moons as tiny points in a line beside it. Mars is far from us this year and only 7″ across, a small orange disc even in a telescope; it comes closest at its opposition in February 2027.
Venus at its brightest on 27 November
Venus passed between the Earth and the Sun on 24 October and is climbing into the morning sky. On 27 November it reaches magnitude −4.9, its greatest brilliancy this time round: brighter than anything else in the night sky except the Moon. It is then a crescent, 24% lit and 42″ across, and binoculars held steady show the shape. Venus keeps climbing until it is farthest from the Sun, 47°, on 3 January 2027, and stays the morning star well into 2027. In the first mornings of the line-up, 9 to 12 November, it also sits about 1.2° from Spica, the brightest star of Virgo.
Mercury's best mornings
Mercury passed between the Earth and the Sun on 4 November and swings out to 19.6° west of the Sun on 20 November (23:36 UTC). In late autumn the path of the planets rises steeply from the eastern horizon before dawn, so from the northern hemisphere Mercury gets 10° to 13° up while the Sun is still 6° below the horizon — a good showing for this elusive planet. It brightens too, from magnitude +1.8 on 10 November to −0.6 by the 20th. Look below and to the left of Venus. In early December Mercury sinks back towards the Sun, and the line-up ends.
Put the binoculars down before sunrise
Binoculars help to pick out Mercury in the twilight, but stop sweeping the eastern sky with them well before the Sun comes up. Catching the Sun in binoculars, even for a moment, can blind you.
The Moon these mornings
New Moon is on 9 November, so the first mornings of the line-up are moonless. The Moon is full on 24 November and then joins the morning planets: on 30 November, 60% lit, it stands a few degrees from Jupiter (about 2° as seen from Europe and North America), with Mars a little farther off, and the next morning it has moved on past them.
How these times are worked out
Positions of the Sun, Moon and planets come from Astronomy Engine (accurate to about an arcminute) for the place set at the top of the page. A morning counts as one of “all four” when, with the Sun at least 6° below the horizon, each planet is at least 5° up, the same rule the calendar uses for planet line-ups. Near that 5° line a planet's visibility depends on haze and on how low your horizon is, so the first and last mornings are borderline. The picture in the box above is a simple diagram: height and direction are drawn to the same scale, as if the sky were flat. The sky map shows the real view, with stars.
Before dawn on 18 November you can also catch the Leonid meteor shower, whose radiant is in Leo near Mars and Jupiter. More on Leonids 2026.